He was flat on the ground, messed up, with sharp, cold metal poking through his arms and legs. These weird chakra rods were buzzing, pushing some heavy, awful energy into him. It always rained in Amegakure, but now it was raining in Konoha too, dark and just endless. Like the sky itself was crying about what happened to the village.
Naruto coughed, spitting up blood. His chest was going up and down fast, and his eyes were all red and strained from the dirt and everything. His special Sage Mode had messed up. He felt it just draining away, like sand running out of a broken bottle. He'd tried everything, thrown everything he had at the freak in front of him. But that stupid Rinnegan… man, that Rinnegan was a nightmare. No matter how fast he moved, how perfectly he gathered nature energy, it felt like fighting God himself. Like trying to punch against fate.
Pein just stood there above him. The rain kind of moved away from him, like the world knew to give him space. Those chakra things sticking out of his back flickered with power, and his voice – real low, real controlled, and scarily calm – cut right through the storm.
"Do you hate me, Naruto Uzumaki?" Pein asked, his voice sounding far away, almost like a robot. "Do you hate me for wrecking your home?"
Naruto gritted his teeth. His mouth tasted like copper from all the blood. Hate? What was this weird feeling crawling inside him right now? The village, flat. Buildings turned to dust. Shikamaru's quiet jokes, gone. Iruka-sensei's warmth, gone. Tsunade, Jiraiya… who was even left? He'd screamed his throat raw earlier, his chakra flickering in those golden, toad-looking eyes. Now he just gasped like an old man, his power gone, replaced by this deep, numb feeling in his bones.
He wanted to talk. He really did. But he couldn't even move his tongue.
That's when she showed up.
Hinata.
Quiet, shy Hinata. The girl who always watched him from behind trees and doors, like a ghost he never noticed. She stepped over the broken pieces of her family's place, her special Byakugan eyes on, her small hands shaking – but clenched into fists anyway.
"Hinata…" Naruto whispered, so quiet it was barely there.
She dropped down next to him. "I won't let you die, Naruto-kun."
He wanted to yell at her. Wanted to tell her to run, that she was being dumb. This wasn't brave. This was suicide. She couldn't beat Pein. She couldn't even buy him time. But she just smiled down at him – rain and blood dripping off her chin – and said, like she'd been waiting her whole life for this moment:
"I always loved you. Ever since we were kids."
Naruto blinked up at her, kinda dizzy. Love? What the hell was she talking about? Now? The village was gone, just ashes. People were dead. He was dying. And she was talking about love? He didn't feel anything. No guilt. No sadness. Not even pity. He just felt… annoyed. It was like someone reading a poem in a burning house.
Pein watched her with that creepy calm look, that robot-like focus in his eyes. He gave her time, weirdly. Like he respected how sure she was, or maybe he just wanted Naruto to squirm. Maybe both. But when she made her move – jumping forward with her Gentle Fist style aimed at his weak spots – it was over before it even started.
A single black rod went right through her stomach. Her eyes got wide. Blood came out of her mouth, mixing with the rain as she fell forward like a broken doll.
Naruto couldn't even scream. His voice was still gone. All he could do was watch her body twitch, then stop moving next to him, her fingers almost reaching his.
Pein tilted his head. "What do you feel now?"
Naruto's throat moved. He wanted to say "anger." Wanted to scream. But he was so, so tired. He'd been mad for hours already. Super furious. At the Akatsuki, at himself, at the village, at this whole damn ninja world and its never-ending cycle of death. He couldn't scream anymore. His heart was beating hard against a wall it could never break.
Silence.
Pein looked down at him with something that looked like pity – or maybe just disappointment.
"So you've given up?" Pein said. "Smart choice. I promise you, Naruto Uzumaki, your dying will bring never-ending peace to this world."
Then… darkness.
Not the poetic kind, not the kind that tucks you gently into dreams. This was the cold, uncaring black of dying. Of fading away. Of slipping under water and never coming back up.
Naruto fell.
And somewhere far beyond the ashes and the rain, something – or someone – was waiting.
—OsO—
He felt nothing. Weightless.
Naruto floated in a silence so thick it pushed against his ears like being underwater. There was no sound, no wind, no heartbeat – just him, naked and alone, floating in a pale, endless space. The edge of everything wasn't black, not even gray, but white – so white it just disappeared into nothing, like a huge ocean of clouds that never moved. He looked around, slowly turning, his body not casting any shadow, his breath disappearing before it could even mist the air.
He curled up without even thinking – arms around his knees, head tucked low, shivering even though it wasn't cold. Maybe it was just instinct. Like how a new baby tries to find warmth that isn't there. His eyelids felt heavy. He could just fall asleep here. Fade away. Maybe that would be easier.
Then – something in his chest exploded.
It wasn't pain, exactly. More like a sudden burst, a wave of heat that roared through his ribs and down his arms, yanking him back to himself. His eyes shot open just as–
–he got crushed. Not by pain this time, but by arms. Two sets of them. One around his shoulders, one around his waist, squeezing him from both sides. He gasped, blinking into cloth and hair and – wait, bodies? He was getting squished between two strangers like some weird family picture.
"Huh—?!" Naruto yanked himself free and stumbled backward, his bare feet on nothing. He spun around to face them.
The guy was tall, broad-shouldered, with hair as bright as the sun that framed a calm, gentle smile. Blue eyes – familiar eyes. A headband shone on his forehead. Naruto gasped. No way.
The Fourth Hokage. Minato Namikaze.
Next to him stood a woman with hair like a river of fiery red, eyes as sharp as they were warm. She leaned on her hip, smirking like she'd been waiting years for this. And… she was staring at him in a way that made his skin tingle.
"See, Minato? He's got my face!" the woman announced, real proud.
Minato chuckled, shaking his head. "But he's got my colors. And he's a boy – so that makes it my win."
Her smirk got bigger. "Just wait until he cries for ramen, dattebane."
Naruto blinked. That… word. The way she said it – like a habit in her speech. He tilted his head, confused. "Datte…bane? Who are you people? Are you… Reapers?"
The woman's face went flat for half a second before she walked right up to him and – smack! – her hand came down on the top of his head with a surprising thump.
"Ow! What was that for?!" Naruto yelped, rubbing his scalp.
"We're your parents, idiot!" she shot back, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Naruto froze. The words didn't make sense at first. Parents? His parents? No. That wasn't possible. He'd never – he couldn't –
He stared at them both, his voice shaking. "…What?"
—OsO—
Time didn't move here. Not like it did in the real world.
No sun. No moon. No clock ticking. Just the same endless pale white spreading everywhere, like the three of them were sitting inside the blank page of a story that wasn't finished yet. Maybe days passed. Maybe months. Maybe years. But the white didn't change, and neither did they. No hunger. No thirst. No sleep. Just voices, and old memories, and laughter.
At first, Naruto didn't know what to say. His head was still spinning from the idea that these two… were his parents. The Fourth Hokage. And a red-haired woman who talked like she could wrestle the Nine-Tails itself into behaving. But they made it easy. They didn't push him. They just… talked.
Minato told him about growing up in Konoha, quiet and into books, always a bit smaller than the other kids his age. How he met Kushina – this loud, fiery transfer from some place called Uzushio with hair that made her impossible to miss. How she hated the village at first and planned to run away back to the sea. How she got kidnapped by some Cloud Village ninjas, and he followed them for hours through the woods, finding her not by her chakra, but by bits of her red hair stuck on the branches. He carried her back, and she yelled at him for hours, but somehow… she never left his side again.
Kushina jumped in then, correcting him, teasing him. "Don't make it sound like some fairy tale, Naruto. Your dad was a clumsy little beanpole. I had to fall in love with him because I felt bad for him." She winked, but Minato just smiled like he'd heard that line a thousand times and never once believed it.
Then she bragged – loudly – about her own adventures. How she tried ramen in every single village she passed through, even enemy lands, just to see if anyone could make it better than Konoha's Ichiraku. (Nobody could, she said.) How she'd become a living nightmare for the Nine-Tails when it acted up while stuck inside her – tying it down with chakra chains and "beating it into behaving." How she once punched an ANBU so hard his mask cracked because he wouldn't stop following her on a mission.
She told the story of kicking Jiraiya – the Jiraiya – straight into a river after he tried to "accidentally" peek at her during training. Minato chimed in, adding that even with her temper, she'd become a super strong Jonin before she was twenty.
They told him about their wedding. How Minato had the same small, calm smile the whole time while Kushina almost bit the priest's head off when he said her name wrong. How Minato became Hokage not because he wanted fame, but because he wanted to protect the people he loved – her most of all. How, when she told him she was pregnant, he didn't even speak for a whole minute – just held her like she was the last important thing in the world.
And then… they told him about the night he was born. About the masked guy, the Nine-Tails breaking free, the total mess. How they chose to seal the beast inside him, because they believed – knew – he'd be strong enough to carry it. How they gave up their lives to give him a chance.
In return, Naruto told them everything.
He told them about his childhood – how the villagers hated him for reasons he didn't get, how he used to pull stupid pranks just to get someone to look at him. How Iruka-sensei was the first one to treat him like a real person. How he trained with Jiraiya, fought in the Chunin Exams, went on missions with Team 7. How he chased Sasuke again and again, always coming back alone.
He admitted the stuff that still bothered him: messing up protecting Konoha from Pein, failing to bring Sasuke back, failing to make Sakura love him, failing to become Hokage like he'd dreamed since he was a kid. The words just spilled out over what felt like years, the white empty space swallowing them and giving nothing back.
Kushina didn't let him feel sorry for himself. She smacked him on the back of the head every time he called himself a failure. "You're my son, Naruto Uzumaki. My son doesn't quit just because he lost a round."
Minato, on the other hand, spoke softer. He told Naruto that strength wasn't just about winning – it was about getting back up every time you lost. That even his own supposedly "perfect" record was built on mistakes he'd learned from. That being Hokage wasn't about titles or fame – it was about being someone worth following. And Naruto had already done that.
It went on and on. Stories, jokes, arguments, more stories. Sometimes they teased him until his face was bright red. Sometimes Kushina would mess up his hair until it stuck up worse than usual. Sometimes Minato would just sit next to him, a hand on his shoulder, quiet but steady.
They didn't let him sink into sadness. Not for a second.
And if it really had been decades here – if Naruto had truly sat with them for years, talking about everything and nothing – then they spent every second of it making sure he understood one thing:
He wasn't alone. Not then. Not ever.
Even if the white void swallowed everything else, they'd carved that truth into him so deep it would never disappear.
And somewhere in that endless stretch of time, Naruto stopped feeling like a failure. He just… felt like their son.
Their dumb, stubborn, ramen-loving son.
—OsO—
It started so slowly Naruto almost didn't notice.
One minute, they were all sitting cross-legged on the blank, endless white, Kushina telling him about how she once made an ANBU cry just by giving him a mean look. The next… her outline was blurrier. Like someone had rubbed her with an eraser.
He frowned. "Hey… are you guys… getting blurry?"
Kushina blinked down at her own hands. The edges of her fingers were glowing a little, breaking into tiny sparks that floated up before drifting towards him. Minato's shape was the same – getting softer around the edges, pale light coming out.
Naruto's stomach dropped. "Wait – no. Don't tell me you're leaving."
Kushina gave him a smile that was way too calm for the panic twisting in his gut. "Looks like our time's up, kiddo."
"No!" The word burst out of him before he could stop it. "You can't go. I just got you. I—" His throat got tight, the words getting stuck. "I don't want you to leave. Not yet. Not ever."
She reached forward, cupping his cheek, her thumb warm against his skin even though she was already fading. "We're not really leaving, Naruto."
And then it happened. The sparks falling from her hands didn't just float away – they drifted straight into his chest. A dozen at first, then hundreds, all sinking into him like glowing bits of fire. Minato's light followed, slow and steady, his calm blue eyes never leaving Naruto's face.
Naruto recoiled, eyes wide. "Gah! You're – you're going in me!"
Kushina chuckled, though her voice shook a little. "Who knows? Maybe it's like we'll be together forever, dattebane!"
"Uh… Kushina," Minato's voice broke in, gentle but worried, "maybe we should… do something. Because I think the In Between is cracking."
"The what?!" Naruto whipped his head toward him.
Minato's fading outline knelt in front of him. "This place – it's the space between life and death. We've been talking so long we forgot. You either go back or move on to the afterlife. Time here isn't real, but if we stay too long…" He glanced at the cracks spreading in the white around them – thin, jagged black lines, like a spiderweb. "It throws you away."
"That still doesn't explain why you're going in me!"
Kushina was half gone now, her arms nothing but swirling bits of light. "You complain too much! Just take it, brat!"
Naruto flailed, grabbing at the glowing wisps sinking into his chest. "No, no, no – stop it! It's creepy!"
"It's family, idiot!" she yelled.
"Feels like ghosts crawling inside me!" he yelled back.
"Breathe!" she shot at him.
"Don't tell me to breathe while you're haunting me!"
Minato was the only one not shouting, though even his voice got urgent. "Naruto, calm down! This is good – it means we'll always be with you!"
"I don't care if it's good, it's weird!"
The cracks got deeper, light pouring in from somewhere beyond them. Everything shook – their voices scattering like sand blown by the wind.
Kushina's face was the last thing left of her, still smiling through the chaos. "We love you, Naruto! Don't you forget it – dattebane!"
Then – darkness slammed over everything.
The kind that wasn't empty, but full. Full of pounding blood, raw air, and something deep inside him burning hotter than fire.
—OsO—
Naruto woke up in a gasp, sucking in air like someone had just yanked him out of the deepest part of the ocean by his hair. His back arched, lungs burning with every breath, and his arms went wild until – WHUMP – his hand smacked against something rough and hard.
His eyes shot open just in time to see a tree trunk practically touching his nose. "Gah!" He jerked back, heart pounding like crazy, barely missing smashing his face right into it.
For a good long moment, he just stood there, chest heaving, trying to figure out where the heck he was. No endless white space. No weird empty void. No Mom and Dad. Just… a forest. Trees everywhere he looked – tall, ancient things with green moss hugging their roots. The air was thick with the smell of wet dirt and leaves. Sunlight pushed through the gaps in the branches above, making golden spots dance on the ground. It was quiet, but not like, dead quiet – he could hear faint bird chirps, little rustles in the bushes, and the far-off sound of rushing water.
And then it hit him. Hard.
He looked down.
"...Oh no."
Nothing. Not a stitch of clothing. No sandals, no headband, no ninja protector, no gloves, no little pouch for his tools. Just him. Standing in the middle of some strange forest. Totally bare.
The sound that came out of him was like a strangled yelp mixed with a horrified scream. "WHAAAT?! No, no, no, no, no!" His hands flew up to cover himself without even thinking, twisting left and right like someone might be hiding in the bushes, secretly watching him. "Are you kidding me?! This – this is the absolute worst!"
His face burned hotter than a fireball jutsu, even though there wasn't a single soul around. He bent his knees a little, like that would help hide him, scanning the trees with wide, frantic eyes.
What in the world was this place?
He forced himself to breathe, trying to think about anything other than how completely and utterly embarrassed he was. The air here… it was weird. The whole forest felt different. There was this energy in it – thick, pure, and just alive. Not quite chakra, but close enough to make the little hairs on his arms stand up. It pulsed softly through the dirt, the leaves, even the wind that brushed against his skin. Like he was standing in the heart of a giant, living thing.
It didn't feel mean or anything. If anything, it felt… welcoming.
Which was nice and all, but it didn't change the fact that he was standing there completely naked like some wild weirdo.
"Okay…" he mumbled to himself, looking at the endless trees again. "Step one – find people. Step two – find clothes. Step three – never, ever think about this again."
Still holding himself for modesty's sake, Naruto started walking, trying not to imagine how ridiculous he looked. Every rustle of leaves sounded like someone laughing at him. Every gust of wind felt like it was mocking him.
And for the first time since he woke up, a chilling thought popped into his head:
Wherever this was… it sure as hell wasn't Konoha.
—OsO—
Naruto had been walking for what felt like hours – bare feet sinking into damp dirt, swatting at bugs, and doing his best to keep his dignity wrapped tight around him… except, of course, he didn't have a blanket yet.
So when he finally saw rooftops peeking through the trees, his heart did a huge leap. People! Thank the gods.
The place looked… ancient. Really old. Not just "small-town-outside-Fire-Country" old, but like something straight out of those dusty history scrolls Iruka-sensei used to use to put them to sleep. Cobblestone streets. Wooden buildings with straw roofs. No post offices, no modern signs, no ninjas anywhere in sight.
And – jackpot – someone's laundry line was hanging outside a small little house.
Naruto glanced left. Glanced right. Nobody. Just some fresh white sheets swaying gently in the breeze. He tiptoed in, grabbed the thickest blanket he saw, and yanked it down, whispering under his breath, "I'll pay you back, I swear. Just – uh – kind of a naked emergency here."
He was just wrapping the thing around himself like a makeshift toga when he heard a voice behind him.
A heavy, confused, "...What the…?"
Naruto froze. Turned around slowly.
A big, middle-aged woman stood there, her arms full of wet laundry. She blinked at him. He blinked at her.
Then she screamed.
Naruto yelped back, nearly tripping over his feet as he threw both hands up in the universal "I surrender!" pose – the blanket barely hanging on. "Wait! Wait! I'm sorry, okay?! I didn't mean to – It's just – I was naked and that's, like, super uncomfortable, y'know—"
But then his gut twisted. That little tingle in his spine – his ninja sixth sense – wasn't telling him she was scared because he was stealing.
She was scared because she thought he was going to kill her.
Naruto frowned. "Huh? Hey, lady, I'm not gonna—"
Too late. The door to her little house slammed open, and shouts filled the air. People came pouring in from the street – men with rusty pitchforks, women holding broom handles like spears, even a few kids carrying sticks with burning rags tied to the ends. Their faces were pale, but furious.
"It's a demon!" someone screamed.
"Somebody kill it!" another voice roared.
"Attack!"
"Whoa – hey – HEY!" Naruto spun on his heel, the blanket flapping behind him. "What's your problem?! I didn't do anything!"
But they weren't listening. They rushed forward, voices getting louder, eyes wide with pure hate.
That word – it – cut right through the noise. Not "him." Not "that boy." Just it.
For a second, Naruto just stood there, stunned. Sure, he'd been called "demon" before – half his life back in Konoha had been spent hearing whispers and seeing glares – but at least those people had a reason. They knew about the fox sealed inside him. These people didn't know him from a hole in the ground, and still –
A rock flew past his head, snapping him out of his daze.
"...Tch. Fine."
And just like that, he took off.
His bare feet hit the dirt road and blurred. The blanket flapped behind him, but no one came close to catching up – not even the ones who tried to block his way. He ducked between buildings, jumped over a fence, and was gone before they even figured out which way he went.
When he finally stopped, miles from the village, he was breathing hard – not from the run, but from pure frustration.
"Calling me a demon… that's just too much," he muttered to himself, kicking at a tree root. "I didn't even do anything."
The blanket sagged around his shoulders, and he pulled it tighter. "And calling me it? That's just plain rude."
Naruto had been insulted plenty in his life – but this? This felt different.
Somewhere deep inside, that pure energy in the air pulsed again, like it was watching him.
And for the first time since waking up here, he wondered if he wasn't the only "strange" thing in this world.
—OsO—
The forest seemed to go on forever.
Every tree looked like it had been standing for hundreds of years, their roots twisted into each other like the whole forest was playing some slow, never-ending game of knots. Naruto walked through it for three days, and the weirdest part wasn't that he kept finding himself going in circles – it was that his body just didn't care.
He didn't get tired. Not once. His legs just kept moving like they'd never heard of getting worn out. His stomach didn't growl, though just out of habit he ate some of the fruits he found – sweet, tart, juicy things that dripped down his chin. He didn't even feel the need to pee, which, honestly, was weird enough to make him stop mid-walk and mumble, "...Okay, that's definitely not normal."
He'd figured out pretty quickly this wasn't his world. No chakra in the air. Not a single bit. Instead, there was something else – life-force, for lack of a better word. It was everywhere, woven into the land like a second heartbeat. Even his own body wasn't the same. His skin, usually a nice light tan from the sun, was paler – almost like he'd been stuck inside for months. That weird energy was moving in him, but not through his chakra pathways. In fact… there were no pathways. No special points. Just a steady, slow swirl that felt like it belonged to this world, not him.
Still, he'd tested himself. Shadow Clones? No problem. He had tested it out in a cave he was resting; it was dark but he had definitely created shadow clones. Rasengan? Yeah – except now it wasn't its usual bright blue ball. It was green. A deep, swirling green, like a tiny planet spinning in his hand.
Sage Mode, though? That was a total disaster.
There was so much natural energy here, it felt suffocating – but when he tried to pull it in, his body reacted like a drunk trying to walk a tightrope. Everything felt… messy. Unbalanced. He had to stop before he turned into a stone statue.
On the fourth morning, after sleeping under the huge branches of a tree that could've swallowed the Hokage Monument whole, he decided something important: he needed a shower. Badly.
Not "wanted." He needed one.
The blanket was starting to smell like it had a personal grudge against his nose, and his hair felt like a bird had tried to build a nest in it. So when he stumbled onto the bottom of a waterfall – a wide, deep pool where the water poured down in a shimmering white curtain – Naruto grinned.
"Oh hell yes."
He dropped the blanket on the grass, took off the rest (not that there was much left to take off), and dove in with a running jump. The shock of cold bit into him, then melted into a wonderful, clean chill. He swam in lazy circles, letting the water wash away all the grime, and for the first time in days, he felt almost normal.
Eventually, he waded closer to the waterfall itself, cupping the icy water to splash over his face. He scrubbed at his cheeks, his temples, his forehead –
Tap.
Something hard brushed his fingers.
Naruto froze.
Frowning, he ran his fingers up to his hairline, expecting maybe a little pebble had gotten stuck in his hair, or some weird bump from… whatever this new world was doing to him. Instead, his hand slid over something solid, smooth, and curved.
It was… sticking out of him.
"…Heh. Okay. Funny." He tried to laugh it off. "Like horns or something, right? Haha—"
The laugh died halfway out of his throat.
He turned toward the still surface of the pool, where the sunlight caught just enough to make a mirror.
The face staring back at him wasn't his.
Not the spiky blonde hair. Not the sun-kissed skin. Not the deep, bright blue eyes that had glared down enemies and smiled at friends for years.
Instead…
The boy in the water had hair split right down the middle – half golden blonde, half deep crimson red. His eyes didn't match, either – one was a dark, stormy blue, the other a piercing, almost glowing light blue.
And from his forehead curved a pair of jagged gray horns, sharp and uneven, like stone carved into shape by something violent.
Naruto's breath hitched.
"…What?"
The boy in the reflection didn't answer – just stared back at him with those mismatched eyes, water rippling over the image as the waterfall roared behind him.
And for the first time since waking in this strange world… Naruto felt a flicker of fear crawl up his spine.
Naruto stumbled back a step, the water sloshing around his knees, his heart hammering so hard he swore the waterfall should've been able to hear it.
"No, no, no, no…" He mumbled, shaking his head like that would make the image disappear. "This is… this is just… maybe I hit my head somewhere between… y'know, dying and waking up here. Yeah. That's it. I'm just seeing things."
He slammed his hands together in the familiar cross sign. "Henge no Jutsu!"
A puff of smoke snapped into the air, and he let out a huge breath of relief when he looked down at the water and saw his face again – normal blonde hair, bright blue eyes, whisker marks and all.
"Ha! Knew it. Just my mind playing—"
He released the transformation in another puff of smoke.
The face staring back at him was the same split-haired, mismatched-eyed stranger. Horns and all.
Naruto's stomach twisted into knots. "…What the hell…"
His hands flew up to his head. He grabbed one of the horns, thinking maybe – just maybe – these were some kind of fake things, stuck there by some crazy prank from the universe. If he could just pull hard enough—
Pain exploded across his skull.
"AGHHH!" He let go instantly, doubling over and clutching his head. "Okay – okay! They're real, they're real, they're REAL!"
The cold, hard truth dropped like a kunai right into his gut.
He wasn't just seeing this. This was him.
And in that same instant, the memory of the village hit him like a punch to the stomach – the woman's terrified eyes, the way her voice shook when she screamed, the men charging at him with weapons, the word it spat out like poison.
His throat went dry.
"They weren't scared because I was naked…" he whispered.
They'd been scared because of this.
Because, as far as they could see, a horned, mismatched-eyed freak had walked into their village with nothing but a blanket and a grin.
Naruto sank down onto the wet rocks at the edge of the pool, his arms resting limply on his knees. The cold spray from the waterfall hit his back, but he barely felt it.
For the first time in a long, long time, he understood exactly why someone would look at him and think he was a monster.
And he hated it.